March 21, 1804 – Napoleonic Code, or “the Civil Code of the French” Established

The Napoleonic Code, officially called the Civil Code of the French, was established in 1804 and is still in force, although it has been frequently amended.

The Ancien Régime was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France beginning in the Late Middle Ages. It lasted until the French Revolution of 1789, which led to the abolition of hereditary monarchy and of the feudal system of the French nobility.

The Napoleon Series website, dedicated to the promotion of scholarly exploration of the Napoleonic Age, points out:

Under the ancien regime more than 400 codes of laws were in place in various parts of France, with common law predominating in the north and Roman law in the south. The Revolution overturned many of these laws. In addition, the revolutionary governments had enacted more than 14,000 pieces of legislation. Five attempts were made to codify the new laws of France . . . “

Napoleon succeeded in forming an expert commission to draft a new civil code to consolidate all the laws in place and devise new ones when needed.

The commission drawing up the code consisted of two jurists specializing in common/customary oral law, and two jurists specializing in written law. The resulting body of law comprised 36 laws and 2,281 articles, arranged in 3 parts dedicated to persons, property, and means of acquiring property.

As for Napoleon’s own contributions to the code, an article by Charles Sumner Lobingier from the December 1918 Harvard Law Review is illuminating, and can be accessed online here.

As the Daily History site notes:

The Code played a significant role mainly in the formation of the 19th century civil codes in most countries of continental Europe and Latin America. Today many European legal systems are established upon its basis and strong influence. The Civil Code has turned into a truly modern instrument successfully applied for over 200 years despite the vast social transformations in the French society.”

Later Napoleon also promulgated four other codes: the Code of Civil Procedure (1807), the Commercial Code (1808), the Code of Criminal Procedure (1811), and the Penal Code (1811).

You can see a copy of the French Civil Code online in either English or French here.